Creamy Cauliflower Soup: Hold the Cream

I'm not a creamed soup fan. There is something about heating up a cup of heavy cream and drinking it that just turns me off.

I like brothy soups, ones filled with beans, vegetables and homemade stocks, maybe a neck bone or two thrown in.

Cream soups are for cans.

This looks like a soup made with cream, but it's not!

It's all pureed vegetables with stock. It is so simple to make and one of the best versions of cauliflower soups out there.

The recipe comes from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.

It is pretty straight forward and seems like nothing special, but I promise it is.

I took the liberty of making a parsley walnut oil pesto to swirl into the soup for color and wow factor.

This is one beautiful soup.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup, Sans Cream:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 large onions, coarsely chopped, Vidalia, Spanish, or yellow
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 celery stalks, sliced
2 thyme sprigs, leaves only
salt and fresh ground white pepper
1 head cauliflower, leaves removed, broken into florets (discard the tough core)
6 cups vegetable broth or 6 cups chicken broth

Walnut Parsley Oil (don't skip this!):

1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 fresh parsley
1/4 cup of walnut oil

To make the pesto: Chop the walnuts and parsley together into a very fine mash, but leaving some crunch to the nuts.
Add in enough oil so that it looks like a dressing (about 1/4 cup). Set aside.

For the soup: In a large, heavy stockpot, heat the butter and oil and cook the onions, celery and garlic on very low heat covered, for 20 minutes. You want to sweat the vegetables, low and slow, not brown them.

Add in the cauliflower florets and the stock and thyme. Remove the lid and simmer the soup for 20 minutes until the cauliflower is soft.

When the soup is cool enough to handle, puree in a blender or my favorite immersion hand blender.
Taste, and season with salt and white pepper (I used regular black pepper).

Swirl in some of the walnut parsley oil and serve.

Delicious!!!!

Enjoy!